Ramdin is HIV positive.
How does that statement make you feel, sorry? Or a very popular feeling called ‘hmmmmmmm’? Or ‘So what’ Or ‘How does it affect me?’
Let me tell you something more. Ramdin is a construction worker, he has no wife, no kids dependent on him, he drinks all day and he has like so many of his friends, has acquired AIDS through unsafe sex.
Now how do you feel about him? ‘he deserved it?’, ‘Good that he has no ‘dependencies’’, ‘I simply don’t care.’ Or again …’How…. really How does it affect me? And that you are irritating me now, I have many other things to take care of, I have to feel up tax forms, last date of which… is like already gone. My landlord is not signing rent receipt, I missed my onsite …. …again.
And my parents are torturing me to get married, So dude I have my issues. And hence Ramdin has AIDS….NO ISSUES.
Not out loud but many of us will have same feeling(s). And it’s very rational too, or so we think….
Ramdin, due to his reduced immune system also has T.B.
And T.B. is airborne.
So now how do you feel? Sorry? Mad at ramdin?
At least now you must not be feeling ‘How does the fact that Ramdin is HIV +ve affect me?’ Coz it does affect you, you breathe the same air that Ramdin does.
I understood the gravity of the problem as Sandeep explains further, ‘Nikhil, you see, thousands of people get affected each year with HIV, most of them unknowingly. And then they are susceptible to an array of diseases most of them contagious, Say T.B. which is a deadly disease to say the least. And many other diseases, and since we breathe the same air, drink same water; use same public transport, viz same seats, same handle bars. We are susceptible too. So what we do is we make sure that infection levels among the HIV +ves is kept minimum. But 90% of all people with TB who come to me are HIV +ve. Actually 90% of all people having deadly diseases have HIV. And other 10% are either children or people with weak immune system. It’s a very real threat considering the numbers are increasing every year, And its not just TB but there are hundreds of diseases which spread through air, through water. We get people from all sections of society who are affected this way’
‘The solutions that we are providing in keeping the infection levels low among HIV victims or partly strengthening their immune system are momentary, and definitely are not enough. The only solution is eradicating HIV. Reduce the number of people getting affected by HIV instead of reducing infection.’
Sandeep did give me a ‘bigger picture’
You see, It really does affect us our friends our children, and in a very real and very big way. And there is very little we can directly do to change all this.
Tell me, is there a way to know if some one sitting beside you and coughing is not common cold but it’s a deadly bacteria?
No, there is no such way to decide. But there is a way to make sure that he or she is not an AIDS victim, which reduces his/her chances of having a deadly disease and affect you.
And you know what, we are doing our bit in this. We are paying taxes which help the government give free medical supplies to people who are affected. It is a great achievement of our health system that we had almost no spread of SARS and BIRD FLUE which were nothing short of a massacre in so many so called developed countries.
But can we do a little more?
Spread awareness about AIDS. Its Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome. Its Aquired meaning no one is borne with it (except from HIV affected mother to child)
We may not be able to do more but if due to your efforts just one person thinks before practicing unsafe sex or some one stays alert while donating/receiving blood, or someone makes sure that an HIV blood test done before he marries his daughter to someone…..
Not that the problems we face are unreal and we have to deal with them too.
But if we could just do this much, we could attain a twofold advantage less HIV +ve people and less chances of you and your friends, family getting affected by diseases they might carry.
We did run the AIDS marathon, didn’t we? This takes less effort. Just be aware and spread awareness.
-Nikhil
Legend:
Sandeep (Sandeep Kulkarni):
A health scheme implementation specialist with Pune municipal corporation, An aspiring MBA student. And my recent new friend. You can reach him @ Kulkarni.pune@gmail.com.
